The battle for second in the Section 2AAA should be interesting after Tonka. Will it be the newcomers Bloomington Jefferson or Chanhassen?
Because I think those teams are closer than people think.
Jefferson and Chanhassen are in the same conference too. So the battle between them will determine if Jefferson 5-peats as conference champs or state qualifiers.
Jefferson is very senior-heavy, so this year will likely be the last time they will be competitive.
Cotter was missing their #3 runner but with him they should be a lock to win the Class A state title.
Washburn beat Tonka and right now it looks like they are the second best team in section 6.
The team that won (Brandon Valley) took 5th in Class AA for the SD state meet last year. Their top guy (Peters) is insane too. He was 17 seconds behind Fries.
Fries looking dominant, has to be the early favorite to win regionals. Where is Peters going to college? Mankato East really needs a 5th, huge gap from 3rd to 4th and even larger 4th to 5th runner, solid top 3 otherwise
On the girls' side it was a mix of good AAA schools and a couple ranked AA schools. Waconia was solid in the win. Runner-up Rogers is stuck in 6AAA but looked good. Orono took third running without one of their top two runners and is poised to grab the second spot in 6AA. Delano might be overrated but does have a low stick and a girl who won the middle school race that should help them.
For the boys the individual field had four ranked runners and Hallen showed he is running at a higher level than the rest. Hallen is a definitely a contender for the AA title. Blake ran without Shamore Brinda and still won. Any update on his status? Orono has a sophomore that made a huge leap from last year and gives them four very good runners, but there is a big gap from 4-5. Waconia might be a sleeper in 2AAA. Delano is deep with a 1:14 gap from runners 1-8 but maybe a year or two away with having to compete in 6AA.
The Cross Country season starts in earnest this week with most teams competing and the St. Olaf Showcase is shaping up to be a great event on the boys side! Last year Fries won by over 40 seconds, but this year both Stuwe and Semling will be competing, along with Mikah Peters from Brandon Valley, South Dakota. That's the top 3 runners from MN and the top runner from SD all in the same race! I still expect Fries to win handily, but it should be a great race between those 4, and interesting to see if any others can run with them!
The weather was perfect today so I decided to make the drive down to Northfield to watch this one. The race went about as expected with the top 4 of Fries, Peters, Stuwe and Semling taking it out early. After the mile mark Fries started pulling away and Peters went with him for a while but Fries is just on another level, he split 4:50 first mile and 4:41 second mile. Fries won handily and looked comfortable doing it. I heard he broke the course record but was not sure by how much, I know Sam Scott ran around 15:15 a few years back.
After Fries, Peter's looked impressive, he is a strong runner and could threaten for an NXN bid. Stuwe finishes 3rd beating #1 in Class A, Semling, by 20 seconds and Class AA #1, David Obst, came in 5th about 20 seconds behind Semling. I think someone mentioned earlier on this thread that Semling was on another level than Stuwe, but that certainly wasn't the case today, Stuwe definitely looks like the 2nd best runner in the state behind Fries at this point.
Jameson Guertin led a strong effort by the Minneapolis Washburn team who surprised many people by beating Minnetonka in the team race. Washburn is an up and coming team with Guertin being the only Senior that scores for them. Finally a shoutout to Tristan Lenton from Buffalo who finished in 8th place with solid PR.
Gorgeous weather and a very well run event by St Olaf. Great way to get the season going!
Hopkins was without juniors L Drevlow and C Hering. And neither of them ran track this spring. Drevlow is also a mountain biker, so no idea if he will be running this year, but he has been on the Hopkins XC team from 7th-10th grade. Not sure what happened to Hering. He is top 10 in the state in the Coach’s polls.
Fries looking dominant, has to be the early favorite to win regionals. Where is Peters going to college? Mankato East really needs a 5th, huge gap from 3rd to 4th and even larger 4th to 5th runner, solid top 3 otherwise
Mankato East was missing their 2nd returner from the state meet (Stoltman, Jr).
Fries looking dominant, has to be the early favorite to win regionals. Where is Peters going to college? Mankato East really needs a 5th, huge gap from 3rd to 4th and even larger 4th to 5th runner, solid top 3 otherwise
Mankato East was missing their 2nd returner from the state meet (Stoltman, Jr).
I think Hassan Mead held the high school course record at 15:10 in 2006. I don't know the college course record but I heard the Olaf coach tell Fries he broke the facility record, which is even more impressive since they had several national champions in the early 2010's.
It is scary to think that it seemed a little warmer today than earlier in the week and some of the top athletes will surely have another 20-30 seconds to drop in a few months. It will be an exciting Fall!
Great news for Tonka is new runner from VA, Ashok Algappan, was just a few seconds from Nordstrom! Seems like they have the best #1 and a very strong #2-4 now.
Neither of these 2 guys ran their best today, but on the bright side, Christian Bach stepped up a lot from last year going from 18:52 at NXR to 17:17 at St Olaf today. He could be a good top 5 runner
Also Ben Kraus ran 16:31 as Tonka’s #2 which is where Will Chose was last year. They tend to train through the first meet of the season as well. #3-#5 need some work
This post was edited 10 minutes after it was posted.
I think Hassan Mead held the high school course record at 15:10 in 2006. I don't know the college course record but I heard the Olaf coach tell Fries he broke the facility record, which is even more impressive since they had several national champions in the early 2010's.
It is scary to think that it seemed a little warmer today than earlier in the week and some of the top athletes will surely have another 20-30 seconds to drop in a few months. It will be an exciting Fall!
2002 the course was ~200 meters long due to some renovations on the st olaf campus, Garrett Heath's 15:50 was likely very close, beat Forest T by 17 seconds.
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